The aim of this study was to assess the role of stressful life events, lack of social support and attachment insecurity in triggering exacerbations of psoriasis.
Perceived social support and attachment relationship were assessed with the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support and Experiences in Close Relationships Scale, respectively. In comparison with controls the patients with psoriasis reported more stressful life events in the last year. The statistically significant difference was found only for the sum of the first 25 events odds ratio OR 1.
The results of this study confirm the relevance of psychosocial factors in psoriasis. Key words: anxious attachment; avoidant attachment; psychological factors; social support; stressful events; case-control study. E-mail: slavenka eunet. Psychosomatic factors have been estimated to be present in at least one-third of patients with dermatological conditions 1. Furthermore, psychiatric disorders are frequent in dermatological patients 8 and are strongly associated with lower quality of life 9.
Psoriasis is a multifactorial disorder associated with significant psychological distress 8, 10 , social stigmatization 11, 12 , psychiatric morbidity 8, 13 and other psychosocial factors. Patients with psoriasis report that their disease leads to various psychological and psychosomatic consequences, such as feelings of anger, depression, anxiety, and social isolation The degree of pruritus is strongly correlated with depressive psychopathology Furthermore, psychosocial burden plays a substantial role in patient perception of disease severity, quality of life, and disease course The aim of the present study was to assess the role of stressful life events, lack of social support and attachment insecurity in triggering exacerbations of psoriasis in Montenegrin patients.
As far as we are aware only one previous study from the South Eastern European region has addressed this issue The study group comprised consecutive outpatients with psoriasis. Inclusion criteria were: 18 years of age or over, a minimum education of elementary school 4 years of education , and exacerbation of psoriasis during the last 6 months.
